The Unloved Bride: Her Heart's Legacy

the small screen, a relentles

dows. The sign read: "St. Jude's Academy for Wayward Girls." It wasn

ls had cornered me. One of them held up her phone, and on its screen was a grainy, humiliating video. It was

the lead girl sneered. "Thi

p and painful. They kicked me, pulled my hair. I just curled into a bal

the school' s directo

helped me up, putting a hand on my shoulder that lingered too lon

frame immediately played an audio file. It was a vo

member, Chloe, things can always get worse. Mr. Gable owes my father a favor. Be a good girl

set me up again, throwing me

r darker, collapsed into a single point of terror. T

hopeless flight. I was standing in the living room, my clothes torn, my face br

ge. Brittany had already called him, fed him another story. That I had disgraced the

advancing on me. "You ar

ied to pull away, screa

words tearing from my throat.

He didn't understand I was screaming at the crushing weight of their betrayal. He twisted

r screamed, standing over me. "Lo

e out of the house and left me on the back

for the first time he was older, slower-and laid his head o

ad spent tens of thousands of dollars. "Public Relations Crisis Management" for the Henderson deal. "Generous Donation" to St. Jude's Academy to qui

o had surfaced online, this one showing Brittany, drunk and laughing, keying

, her scandal. But

ch where I was still lying, unable to move. He held h

wisted by years of her manipulation. "You drive

were punishing me for a sin I didn't commit, a sin committed by the daughter they adored. It was the moment I finally underst